Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., Minn.) and new husband Tim Mynett—who is also her campaign consultant—are downplaying the campaign cash the freshman lawmaker funneled to his consulting firm. But campaign records show that Omar’s campaign has been by far the firm’s biggest client, funneling more than half-a-million dollars to the group in the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, almost half of all the money the company took in from federal candidates.
Omar and Mynett announced their marriage last Wednesday after vigorously denying they were engaged in a romantic relationship.
Now Omar’s campaign and Mynett’s firm, the E Street Group, a campaign consultancy for progressives, are defending their professional relationship from critics who have charged that Omar broke the law by improperly using campaign money for personal travel—in particular, to reimburse Mynett’s travel from California to Washington, D.C., to visit Omar.
Mynett’s business partner, Will Hailer, swatted down those criticisms, arguing that Omar is one of the group’s run-of-the-mill clients. “On any given day, eight or more people could be touching her account at some point, between design, digital ads, social media, email content creation, high-dollar fundraising, political support, and many other things that we provide for the campaign,” Hailer told the Washington Post. “Similar to what we provide for countless other clients across the country.”
A review of campaign finance records, however, found that the firm has just 17 clients and that Omar has been the firm’s largest for the entirety of its existence. During the 2018 cycle, Omar paid the E Street Group $62,674 for fundraising consulting and was one of just four of the firm’s campaign clients. Omar, who has spent $523,443 in total on the group’s services in the 2020 campaign cycle, remains the firm’s largest political client, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. – READ MORE
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